Baseball: Chris Colabello unlikely prospect for Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins have to do some old-fashioned things, like operate within a budget, so spending more money than the competition is not an option.

Being smarter is, though.

So Milford’s Chris Colabello, the long, long, long, longtime member of the Worcester Tornadoes, wound up in the right place as he tries to create an unlikely major league career for himself. Even though Colabello is a first baseman and behind Justin Morneau on the organizational depth chart, the Twins don’t consider him to be just a roster filler.

After all, he’s hitting .313 with eight homers, nine doubles and 23 RBIs in 34 games for Triple-A Rochester. In his last 10 games, he’s hitting .349.

“He had a very good year in Double A last season,” Twins general manager Terry Ryan said last week when his team was at Fenway Park, “and he is faring well in Triple A this year. He is a good left-handed hitter, and a good left-handed hitter with some power. Players like that have a way of making people get interested in them.

“What he did in the World Baseball Classic didn’t do anything to hurt his chances, either.”

Indeed, Ryan said, Colabello is comparable in some ways to Boston’s Daniel Nava. That Nava is in the majors and Colabello is close to the majors is pretty remarkable considering their stints playing in independent leagues.

Nava spent just one year in the Golden League. Colabello spent seven in the Can-Am League, almost all of them with the Tornadoes. As it turns out, he lasted longer than they did.

“He’s at a point,” Ryan said of Colabello, “where a couple of things are possible. Either something happens and a spot opens up for him, or he forces the issue. With everything he’s overcome to get where he is, I wouldn’t bet against him.”

Answers.

1. He is the all-time leader in home runs hit by a player born and raised in New England.

2. The Red Sox general manager whose teams finished in first place the most times.

3. The three players who were Red Sox teammates for the most number of seasons.

Questions below.

There are a few reasons to think that Joe Maddon is the best manager in baseball, one of them being that many players have their best seasons when they are wearing a Rays uniform.

This year it is James Loney, who had nothing going for him at the end of last year in Boston, but is a batting title contender in Tampa Bay so far in 2013. Before that, it was Casey Kotchman — .217 for the Mariners in 2010, .306 for the Rays in 2011, .229 for the Indians last year.

Then there’s reliever Dan Wheeler, who had three excellent seasons in Tampa, came to Boston and was lousy (2-4, 4.38) in 2011 and had an 8.76 ERA for the Indians last year. This year at Triple-A Omaha he is at 1-3, 9.00.

How’d you like to be a fan in either southern California or Chicago? Both the Dodgers, with a payroll of $216.6 million, and the Angels, with a payroll of $127.9 million, are in last place. The money’s not that big a deal in Chicago, but both the Cubs and White Sox could finish in last place, something that has not happened since 1948. … Doing the math, now that Joel Hanrahan is history: Starting with Curt Schilling in 2008, the Sox have paid Schilling $8 million, Daisuke Matsuzaka $20.6 million, John Lackey $16 million, Bobby Jenks $12 million, Andrew Bailey $3.9 million and now Hanrahan $7 million for, essentially, not pitching. That totals up to $67.5 million in wasted dollars, and people think the federal government wastes money? … The Pawtucket Red Sox have a nice homestand coming up. They play the Gwinnett Braves, then Indianapolis, so McCoy Stadium will be busy from Tuesday through May 21. Jose Iglesias has returned to the lineup after being benched for a lousy attitude. He has no reason to be upset that Stephen Drew is in Boston and he is not. However, if Iglesias had not gone 10 for 74 (.135) in his big-league chances in 2011 and 2012, Boston would not have felt it necessary to sign Drew. No matter how good a shortstop is defensively, a manager can’t have a .135 hitter in the lineup every day. … Since Double A is often where a franchise’s best prospects are, the Sox have to be encouraged that the Portland Sea Dogs have the best record in the Eastern League. It’s a big change from the last couple of years, when Portland was just 127-156.

It was a bad week for umpires, and the calls for more video replay are getting louder. The vote here is “no,” since games are long enough as it is now, and in the long run, the mistakes even out. To some extent, reversed calls are in the same category as forfeits in high school sports. Finding out you actually won a game three months after it was played doesn’t have quite the same level of emotion to it. The Red Sox have seen both sides of missed calls in the last couple of weeks. In Toronto, Dustin Pedroia was called safe on a play in which he clearly ran down the inside of the baseline. Last week at Fenway, the Sox had an identical call go against them. Over 162 games, teams break even. … There is nothing quite like lousy defense to make a team look bad, as the Sox did during their losing streak last week. Defense is the hardest aspect of the game to nail down with numbers, but look at it this way — since the start of the 2011 season, Boston is 110-93 when it does not make an error, 71-86 when it does. … It seems like, maybe, Jarrod Saltalamacchia is finally getting it offensively. But, it looked like that last year, too, when he was batting .261 on this date. He wound up at .222.

This kind of thing flies under the radar, but speaks to character, something that has been an issue on Red Sox rosters in recent seasons. On Thursday night, the Twins scored a run on a sacrifice fly on a play where it looked like Shane Victorino’s throw had produced an out.

Umpire Lance Barksdale made the safe call and John Farrell came out to argue, then headed back to the dugout. David Ross simply admitted he had missed the tag; Ross could have jumped up and down and tried to make Barksdale look bad, but did the right thing instead. In the long run, having that kind of player around makes a team better.

Popular spare outfielder Darnell McDonald is still playing, but having a hard time of it with the Cubs’ Triple-A team in Iowa. McDonald is hitting below .200; Ramon Martinez is a consultant with the Dodgers’ Latin player development program; Roger Lafrancois, the Sox’ last No. 3 catcher, is the hitting coach for the Cardinals’ Class-A affiliate in Palm Beach.

Short-time reliever Randy Williams is pitching in Japan for the Seibu Lions, infielder Jody Reed is managing the Dodgers’ Double-A team in Chattanooga, cup-of-coffee outfielder Jason Repko is with York of the independent Atlantic League; and Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, Boston’s first DH, who was a visitor to Fenway last week, is a community ambassador for the Giants.

1. Who is Jeff Bagwell? Bagwell, who was born in Boston and grew up in Middletown, Conn., is tied with Vladimir Guerrero on the all-time home run list with 449 homers. They are in 36th place.

2. Who is Lou Gorman? Gorman’s Sox won AL East titles in 1986, 1988 and 1990. Eddie Collins, Boston’s first GM, had a first-place team in 1946, Dick O’Connell had first-place teams in 1967 and ’75, Dan Duquette had a first-place team in 1995 and Theo Epstein’s 2007 Sox won the AL East title.

3. Who are Dwight Evans, Jim Rice and Bob Stanley? They were together on the Sox from Stanley’s rookie year in 1977 to 1989, a total of 13 seasons.

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